It's all about second chances for the abandoned, abused or lost. We can open our hearts and homes to them and at the same time take one small step toward something more, an attitude of love that someday will make the world a better place.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

I spent the summer
between 6th grade and Junior High in the library. I also spent it on buses
taking me to and from the library. On those bus rides I suffered the stares of
other passengers. Sometimes they moved away from me. I don’t blame them too
much because I looked like I had a bad case of the measles. I didn’t. It was a
mysterious blood condition that eventually went away by itself.

I read every horse book and dog book I could find in the small neighborhood
library that summer. (I would have read cat books, but at that time, there
weren’t very many.)Then I got started at the main library in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, where I grew up.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, changed attitudes about the
treatment of horses and began a movement that created the first Society to
Prevent Cruelty of Animals. This book changed my life. It was one of the first
animal books written in first ‘person’. Another book, Beautiful Joe
by Marshall Saunders stayed with me also and told a sad story about an abused
dog that as a young girl, I couldn’t believe.

I didn’t know it then, but I am convinced these books led me to my vocation and
the belief that kindness and mercy toward animals would guide me all my life.
My calling now is to write about animals, to be a spokesperson and a voice for
the voiceless.

I keep lots of quotes and stories about animals. I came across a piece the
other day by Dr. Michel Klein who wrote a book, Animals, My Teachers: An
Autobiography of a Veterinary Surgeon. The book was part of The
Companion Book Club and published by Harvill Press, London in 1975. He
was ahead of his time and says, in part:

“It is animals as much
as human beings, from the tiniest Yorkshire terrier to living colossi such as
Siberian tigers or Indian elephants that have made me what I am. It is to
satisfy a passion which gradually overcame me and has never ceased to grow: to
restore the animals place in a world dominated by man, a place we encroach on
by steadily destroying and looting its habitat. Man without animals condemns
himself to inhumanity. My task is to protect them, draw them closer to us and
promote our knowledge and love of them.”

I don’t know how much of a dent I can make but I keep trying. I not only hear
the words from Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe but
the cries of cats and dogs that lose their lives in shelters, suffering farm
animals, show horses and race horses, puppy and kitten mills, and so many more.

This is why I write about animals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My book, Jake’s Gift: The
Story of a Cat Who Wouldn’t Quit, has just been released and is available on Amazon or at TulipTreePub.com

About Me

I am a poet, writer and photographer. I have always been involved in some form of artistic expression. I am now retired from the Presbyterian church where I was most involved with social issues and education. My husband and I have 6 grandchildren including 2 sets of twins. I volunteer for animal rescue groups and am interested in helping pet owners with grief and loss issues. I now live with my extended family on an urban horse farm in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.